Our Potted Garden

This year's garden:
Early Girl Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Jalapeno Peppers
Yellow Bell Peppers
Chives, Spearmint & Cilantro

The funny story with the garden comes with buying the spearmint start.  As we walk into Carpinito's he's checking out all the starts with me and finds the mint section.  He gets so excited and is literally bouncing!  He actually tasted a leaf off 3 different mint plants.  He really liked the chocolate mint.  peppermint wasn't strong enough for him and so he settled on spearmint.  Crazy boy!  I had to tell him to stop eating the spearmint or there would be nothing left of the plant to grow.

Now let's see if I am successful this year or if the brown thumb remains!  If it takes off we will be having some yummy salsa this year!

Geocaching

This is how our first geocaching trip began.  Cameron is doing his schoolwork and I'm playing with Ruby (my phone.)  He's having a really of day.  As I'm playing and checking out all the cool apps out there, I run across one for geocaching!  I've always wanted to try it.  I'll download it and see what the app is all about.  Well, what do you know?  There are a dozen or so geocaches within a couple of miles of us.  A good way to fix an off day with Cam on a sun-shiny day... go outside.  So, off we go for our P.E. lesson; Cameron, Ruby & me!

Our first site is a winner!  One step in the mud, dodged a few thorn bushes, climbed a couple of rocks and we were there.  It's a big ammo canister and filled with lots of knick-knacks.  Cam chooses a little coin holder with a dove sewn on it.  And he left a monster truck.

Site two was a bust.  It was in the Landing by one of the signs, but we never did find anything.  So, we were 50/50 our first time out and we had fun.  He's ready for more.  And all this outdoor fun started with playing with my phone.  And homeschool improved after we were back!

Rock and Worship Roadshow

Jars of Clay

What an awesome concert.  Andressa and her kids came with us and we all had a great time.  Each of the kids had their glow sticks and we got our seats right as the 1st song was playing.  We saw The Afters, Matt Maher, Thousand Foot Krutch, Lecrae, Jars of Clay and Mercy Me.  All the boys like Thousand Foot Krutch (Heavy Metal) and Lecrae (Rap.)  How surprising, I know.  My faves were The Afters and Jars of Clay, of course. 6 bands for $10, what a deal!  Seeing some of the testimonies of the band members and the way the gospel is being shared was definitely priceless!

Adoption Day ~ Hockey Game

This year we went to a WHL Seattle Thunderbirds vs Vancouver Giants hockey game for our family celebration.  It was great.  They were all surprised to see we were on the glass behind the T-Birds bench.  Cam was hoarse at the end because he was yelling from excitement from the time he saw where we were sitting.  Off at the concession stand I got  huge thank you from Alex and Jim was very happy.  I have to say they made me feel pretty good about getting the tickets to the game.  I actually bought them for Jim's Christmas present just for this day.  I thought it would make a double holiday gift.

We had a bit of everything in the game.  We had a injury, I think the guy lost some teeth.  I just saw blood and him skating off the ice with his hands in front of his mouth and his gear was left on the ice.  That led to a big old fashioned hockey fight!  You probably hear Cameron screaming during that one.  At one point the ref ended up going over the boards into the bench. A guy about 5 seats away caught a puck (Ouch!)  One of the Zambonis messed up part of the ice, so that was just kind of cool to watch them try to fix it.  Cameron says he saw himself on the jumbo tron. 

Being behind the bench was neat watching the equipment manager.  You could see the pride he took in his job.  We saw him tape up sticks, sharpen skates, and work with the players very smoothly.  It was cool just to see a different view of the game.

The score was 3-2 and in the very end the Giants pulled their goalie.  Yet, it backfired and the T-birds scored again with 2.5 seconds left in the game.  So, we won 4-2 and had an amazing evening!

~~Those Silly Boys~~

Alex

We've lived in this neighborhood just shy of a year.   One block away is the Highlands Neighborhood Center.  Mondays, they play Magic, which is a trading card type game.  Wednesdays, they play Dungeons & Dragons.  And that is where you will find Alex.  He's made a few friends there and they get together and have all night D&D tournaments.  Because the rec center games are sponsored by Wizards of the Coast, Alex has come home with 100's of dollars worth of cards, books, and miniatures. He loves it!  Then he also is at the library ever week.  He's half way over his 2nd year of Running Start at Highline Community College.  He'll have to take one class in the fall qtr. to get his Library & Information Services certificate.  Most of his classes have been online, but spring qtr. he'll be interning again.  He enjoyed doing it last year. 

Cameron
There is always a million things going on in Cammy's world.  Right now in co-op he is taking juggling, abacus math and destruction zone.  I know that 3rd class was a shocker, right?  He's been taking things apart as long as I can remember! Homeschool has been going pretty well.  We are studying Astronomy for science which we both love.  We're studying Ancient Civilizations & the Bible for history.  It's a great curriculum that has a lot of hands on activities.  He's also in his 3rd year of art.  Lately his art and history have been overlapping, which is fun for him. He's been getting into rock climbing lately.  I have a friend who took him to one of those rock climbing places in the mall and it was pretty much a joke for him it was so easy.  So, this week,  He went to REI and climbed the Pinnacle.  It's 65' tall.  He managed medium level and then got most of the way up the hard level.  He also wants to get into Parkour, but we're holding off on that.  I told him to train at home first.  

What Can I Say?

I was talking to a friend of mine about Picasa the other day and it made me realize that I hadn't been sharing my pictures like I used to.  I put them on Facebook, but not all my wonderful friends and family are on Facebook.  That also made me realize that those people are also the ones that don't hear the updates.  Okay, they vary from the trivial, to serious, to just sharing God's Word.  But still, I do have friends who don't use Facebook.  Strange, for any of my friends not to use it, but I love all people.  8)   And so here I will once again attempt to blog.

Now for what's going on in our lives.  We're really excited about some upcoming things.  Next Tuesday is our family Adoption Day.  We are all going to a Thunderbirds hockey game as that is our family sport to watch.  Then Wednesday is our 18th Wedding Anniversary.  We don't have anything planned at the this point.  Maybe we will go to dinner.  We don't really do much for Valentine's Day since our anniversary is so close. (Jim does always buy me flowers and chocolate, though!) This year, I think is not much for our anniversary since we are going on the cruise in May.  What cruise, you may ask.  (That means you haven't been around me in awhile!) Let me tell you about it.

May 7th - 14th we are going on a wonderful Alaskan Cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines.  Saturday we will fly down to L.A., where I may try to hit up some locals (friends) to give a us a ride to the ship.  ( I read cab fare to be at about $60, and I'm just too frugal for that!)  We'll spend 3 days at sea with our balcony stateroom and port at Juneau, Ketchikan, and disembark in Vancouver, BC.  We have a most of the day in BC to spend and then we will take the Amtrak Cascades home.  Doesn't it sound like a fun adventure?  This will be the 1st time Jim and I will have ever been alone together this long. 

We've had quite a bit of snow this week.  We got almost 6" and it's been so cold it's stayed.  That makes Cameron very happy.  I know that's not much snow for some of my friends who have been inundated with snow, but for us it is a lot.  I do wish we would get it a little more often. 

I 'll do a separate post on the boys!